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AN 



ACCOUNT OF A DROPSY CURED BY 

 BLUE VITRIOL. 



[Read before the Medical Society the 9th April 1781, and first 

 published in the London Medical Journal, vol. i. p. 266.] 



Stephen Friar, a native of the Island of Madeira, aged 

 about twenty-four years, was steward of a ship, from London 

 to Jamaica. Soon after his arrival at Montego Bay, he was 

 taken ill of a fever, and left ashore at sick-quarters. Captain 

 Mercer of Liverpool offered him a passage, and he was 

 brought on board July 30. 1777, in a very low condition. 

 The account he gave me was as follows: — 



That about the beginning of June he was seized with a 

 fever, which, notwithstanding the many medicines given him, 

 did not entirely leave him till about ten days before he em- 

 barked. He complained of tightness about the praecordia, 

 and of a difficulty of breathing when he walked. He had 

 pains in his hips and limbs, was sometimes much griped, and 

 once, in three or four days, had a few watery stools, which 

 sensibly diminished his strength. His appetite was tolerable; 

 his urine high coloured, and in small quantity. I ordered 

 him some stomachic bitters, a nourishing diet from the cabin, 

 and to stir about upon deck in line weather. 



